Local Government | Civics: Links to History

Links to History: Local Government

1000

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  source: Gianni Dagli Orti, Corbis/Bettmann

1066 Normans conquer England and change name of shires (local administrative divisions) to counties.

1100

1200

1300

1400

1500

1565 Saint Augustine, the oldest city in the United States, is founded by the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.

1600

1607 Jamestown becomes the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

1620 English settlers who had sailed to North America on the Mayflower write the Mayflower Compact.

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  source: Hulton Archive, Getty Images Inc. - Hulton Archive Photos

1629 The Massachusetts Bay Company is founded. As a private company, it governs the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the next fifty years.

1682 William Penn founds city of Philadelphia.

1600s-1700s Middle and southern colonies develop counties. Northern colonies prefer the town as the local governing unit.

1700

1800

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  source: SuperStock, Inc.

1800s As the United States expands to the west, more counties are established.

1900

2000

2000s There are more than 3,100 counties in the United States.